Gaming rig upto 35k

[rooker]

hello all

I have been an avid gamer in the past, in the days of Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament (and I think gaming was the only thing I was good at, maybe still am ) Those were college days and stuff, but after that I got into engineering and now a job and all that jazz and overtime I stopped gaming totally (The only exception I made was for Half Life 2+Episodes and Dragon Age). but I was playing these games on my hp dv4 notebook, and it wasnt much fun.

Now I want to buy myself a fairly decent gaming desktop. I will be honest with you guys, I have really no idea what are the best processors, motherboards, GPUs etc out there in the market now. (I did read the links to the best GPUs money can buy etc threads, What I am looking for here is a good starting point) I know my budget wont get me a top end machine, but Im hoping you guys can suggest some good config.

So, here goes:

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')

Ans: I have heard a lot about Borderlands 1 &2 and really want to play that game. Then Max Payne 3, Assassin's Creed series, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Devil May Cry 3, Darksiders 2. Half Life 3(whenever it comes out!). Mostly FPS and action games.

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: For the PC, 30k. I also need to buy a monitor, so keeping aside some 5k for that.

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans:No

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Windows

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: 1 TB

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: Yes, want to buy a monitor.. 21". 1920*1080. Or whatever you guys think is a good enough resolution for gaming. Im looking for advice for this.

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: None

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: As soon as possible.

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: By an assembler.

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: living in Pune, will be buying locally. Open to buying online.

11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: I hope I can get something good in my budget!

Thanks a ton guys!

 

[vkl]

Intel i3 2100 - 6500
Corsair value RAM(1333MHz)4GB - 1200
Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2H - 3200
Seagate Barracuda 1 TB - 4900
Corsair VS450 - 2100 or Corsair CX430V2 - 2500
Asus DRW-24B5ST - 1000
CM elite 310 - 1700
Dell ST2220L(FHD) - 8500
MSI R7770 - 8100

 

[rooker]

Hey thanks vkl!
That looks like a nice config, and I checked out the MSI card and most of the reviews about it were fair. There were a couple of places where people seem to suggest the GeForce GTX560. How good is this GeForce card as compared to the Radeon-based MSi?

Also, I checked the graphic card specs on SMCinternational.in and it said:

Graphics Engine ATI Radeon HD 7770
Interface PCI Express x16 3.0

Then I checked the mobo's specs:

EXPANSION SLOTS
PCI Slots: 2
PCIe x1 Slots, Generation: 1, 2.0
PCIe x16 Slots, Generation: 1, 2.0

The mobo spec sheet says it has 1 PCIe*16 Slot, gen. 2.0 while the graphic card needs gen 3.0. Is this fine?

I also read that

While it (Radeon 7770) runs modern games 25 percent to 30 percent faster, it also requires enough room in your system for a double-wide card and a six-pin PCIe power plug, which not all computers have

What does this mean?

Thanks!

 

[vkl]

Gtx 560 performs better than hd7770.It would cost around 10k or more.

PCIe 3.0 is backward compatible with PCIe2.0.So no problem there.HD7770 would perform perfectly with PCIe 2.0 x16 without any bottle-neck.

Dual slot graphic card can fit into that board,but you would have to sacrifice the other PCIe slot.Corsair VS450 comes with one 6 pin PCIe power connector.
HD 7770 required one PCI-e 6 pin powe connector.Gtx 560 requires two PCI-e 6 pin power connector.The VS450 comes with only one 6 pin PCIe power connector.
So you have to use 2X4 pin to 6 pin adapter which should come with the GPU.Or else you can buy this dual molex-PCI-E adapter for around 500 rupees.

 

[Karan Vaidhya]

Hello rooker!
even i got the same config when i asked for one around 35k.
i want to ask you if core-i3 is good or not?

 

[rooker]

Ok cool!c
Ok I was thinking I will keep the 35k only for the config; no monitor. What possibly can I gain? I would obviously want to improve graphics performance. Will the performance gain will be substantially better if I stretch my budget to this? If I am only going to get a marginal gain in performance, then I will stick to the config suggested above.

Any suggestions please?

Hello rooker!
even i got the same config when i asked for one around 35k.
i want to ask you if core-i3 is good or not?

Hi Karan

I would like to point you towards this article:
*www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391498,00.asp

An excerpt:

Performance with the Core i3-2100 was right in line with our expectations. It didn’t make much of a dent in the Core i5-2500K’s or the Core i7-2600K’s performance scores—some examples: It needed 1 minute 40 seconds to convert a video using the open-source utility Handbrake, a task the Core i5-2500K could complete in 1:12; and it rated 69.7MBps in our TrueCrypt cryptography benchmark test compared with the 142MBps the Core i5-2500K managed—though it did decently well in almost every area except gaming.

There, it showed itself to be unsuitable to even relatively low-resolution titles, earning a barely serviceable 5,718 in our 3DMark Vantage DX10 test on the Entry preset (1,024 by 768) and a paltry 1,062 on the Performance preset (1,280 by 1,024), as well as maximum average frame rates of 22 frames per second (fps) in H.A.W.X. 2, 8.5fps in Lost Planet 2, and 3.9 in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat—all at 1,024 by 768. Like all of Intel’s CPUs, it’s better suited for everyday usage rather than more intense pushing—a standalone video card, would make a big difference.

So I am hoping that with the stand alone graphic card, gaming performance would be decent.

 

[vkl]

If you remove the monitor from the list for a later purchase then and stretch the budget by a bit more then..
you can go for (intel i5 2400 + Gigabyte GA-B75-D3H)@15k,hd7850 for around 15.5k and CX500V2@3.5k.This will take your budget to around 43k without monitor but would be more balanced.

Else if i3 2100(it is a very capable processor for gaming) is enough for you then change the motherboard to Gigabyte GA-B75-D3H@4.3k and add an hd 7850 for around 15.5k.
This will take the cost to around 37k without monitor.

Hd7850 is much faster than hd7770 and is more future proof from a gaming point of view.Most probably price cuts are going to happen on hd 7850 and other 7000 series cards.So if you can wait for a
month or two while running your system on the IGp you might get a much cheaper deal for the hd7850.

 

[rooker]

Hi vkl, thanks again.
I think I will stick to the i3.
If I go for the 7850, will the Corsair VS450/CX430V2 PSU suffice?
Also, I checked the online prices of the 7850, the minimum I found is 16.5k. Is there a card in between the 7770 and 7850 (geForce is also fine)? But definitely full HD.

Thanks!

 

[RON28]

^^^hey buddy wait for sometime...AMD are going to slash down the prices of there graphic cards to comptete with Nvidia.

 

[audiophilic]

At 35k, you might get a good gaming rig, but that is all about it. If you want something excellent, start by buying a decent motherboard from EVGA that will allow a 4 way sli.

The cheapest road - buy a PS or Xbox

 

[vkl]

@rooker

Yes with i3 2100 and hd7850,cx430v2 should suffice for the system quite easily.
Locally hd7850 is selling around 15.5k.
Gtx 560 will cost around 10k or more.I would say go for hd7850 if possible.
HD 7850 is the big step up.Newer gen,higher compute abilities,more VRAM are all good things that would come with hd7850.
Price cuts might take time to take effect in Indian market but some forum members have already reported of price cuts taking place.

 

[rooker]

Ok. 7850 it is then. Will go to the local market here to see if its cheaper. is there any particular company I should look for? Sapphire/MSI/HIS?

 

[vkl]

Look for any manufacturer which has good after sales service in your locality.
Try finding one with custom cooler if you are into overclocking.For cards having good overclocking capabilities look for MSI hd7850 power edition,sapphire hd7850 OC edition.
Gigabyte AMD GV-R7850OC has good out of the box clock of 975MHz(can also be overclocked further).
It is suitable for you if you don't want to overclock much as it's base clock is already well above the reference clocks.
Even a reference hd7850 would generally reach 1GHz clock upon overclocking.Reference hd7850 should be a bit cheaper than non-ref.
So overall you have plenty of choices for picking up a good hd7850 based card.

 

[rooker]

hey vkl, the amd website says min 500W PSU is required, so do the websites of the card manufacturers.

PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
500W (or greater) power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended
600W power supply (or greater) with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended for AMD CrossFire™ technology.

If I have to go for a 500W supply, my price will go up another K at least. Instead, I am thinking about the 6850 series, even 6870. So even if i have to go for the CX500 PSU, its fairly in budget. Or am I getting something wrong about the PSU?

 

[vkl]

@rooker
When AMD writes something like this,they have to take it account more power consuming processors like fx8150,i7 2700k and also other things like power consumed by other components and maybe overclocking into account.
Check this:Need a new graphic card in 20k to 25k

You can clearly see a more powerful and power consuming card(hd 7950) even at full load/overclocked with an overclocked i7 2600k consume less than 320Watts.
i3 2100 is a locked processor which would consume significantly lesser power than an i7 2600k@4.8GHz.Also hd7850 consumes much lesser power than hd7950.

So CX430V2 would easily handle the hd7850 along with the given config.
If hd7850 seems out of budget and you can't wait for the price cuts then go ahead with hd6850/6870 or a gtx560.

 

[rooker]

Sapphire AMD HD 7850 1GB OC GDDR5 1 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card | Graphics Card | Flipkart.com

Vkl, is this card good?? Sounds like a good deal, though its 1 GB.

I really want to go for the 7850, as u advise. I have seen the mentions about price cuts on some other forums - it seems that this has been going on since july. I dont know how much longer I might have to wait, and since I have some cash right now I would really like to invest as soon as possible.

 

[vkl]

^^Locally around that price-point one can find the 2GB version.

 

[rooker]

^^Locally around that price-point one can find the 2GB version.

hey vkl,

I tried to find out some things today, but being a Sunday, didnt work out well, Am planning to go out tomo.

There are a few things I sort of have a doubt about after talking to a few people:

Do all cabinets come with an inbuilt SMPS? If So, will I have to junk the PSU that comes with the cabinet?
One guy suggested I go for i3 2120. On flipkart the 2120 is only slightly (about a 100 bucks) more than the 2100. Is there any prob in going for this processor?

btw, is it not possible to make a new post after a post I have made previously? I have been trying to add a psot but it is only getting appended to my last post.

 

[havoknation]

Hi rooker,
core i3 2120 is hardly 100-150 bucks costlier then 2100 and it is 3.3 as compared to 3.1. So its your call buddy.
Also radeon 7850 is a way to go. and IMO cx430v2 is ok but dont take a risk. Atleast buy cx500/600 or Seasonic S12 520/620W for safer future and long running of components.
You can save some bucks in cabinet and invest in good psu. I will see you tomorrow as discussed

 

[rooker]

Hi rooker,
I will see you tomorrow as discussed

its either a bloody small world or a might popular forum!